.jpg)
The Philippines’ Insurance Commission (IC) has expressed optimism that the country’s insurers will be able to comply with the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17 by 2023, allowing them to keep up with the global insurance industry.
IC deputy commissioner George Ongkeko Jr., who was at the 15th Insurance Summit at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati last week, said that the regulator is confident that insurers will meet IFRS 17’s requirements within the next four years. He believes that doing so will improve their accounting and actuarial processes as well as their data gathering and storing capabilities.
“IFRS 17 is really a monster of a standard. I hope the industry as a whole would really move forward from taking seminars to really looking at systems to help them by 2023,” Ongkeko told the Business Mirror. “The commission actually encourages the companies to move ahead in terms of their preparations for IFRS 17 just because it’s a standard that not only encompasses actuarial and accounting [systems] but [also] data gathering, structure, software, hardware. It’s very much in-depth.”
Ongkeko added that the IC has created a dedicated body to check local insurers regarding their efforts to comply with IFRS 17. Multinational firms are expected to take the lead in complying, since they have access to resources from their parent companies abroad.
“The commissioner has already instructed a certain team in the IC to have a survey in terms of progress in the IFRS,” he said. “And one key item we would like to indicate in the survey is whether there is already a system that is being bedded out.”
